March Madness

Last March, Congress attached $14 billion in additional unrelated spending
to the president's war on terror supplemental bill, but after a credible
veto threat by President Bush, Congress relented and removed the pork.

CAGW estimates Congress saved between $12 billion and $15 billion last year
by eliminating more than 7,000 earmarks. Unfortunately, it wasn't a real
saving because members spent the money on other programs.

Here are just two examples of the kind of stuff taxpayers need to watch out
for from last year's budget because they could be back this year:
$1,190,000,000 for 20 F-22A fighter jets. Last summer, according to CAGW,
"the General Accounting Office sent a 13-page letter to then-House Defense
Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman C.W. (Bill) Young, urging Congress to
stop funding the jets due to their high cost and the fact that the aircraft
is out of date." Such things never deter Congress when it spends other
people's money. There's much more waste in the Defense Department budget,
which can be found in detail in the "Pig Book" (cagw.org).

A personal favorite is $4.5 million in last year's budget for Homeland
Security for the misnamed Secure Border Coordination Office. This would be
money well spent if it actually made the border more secure, but no one
seems to have the political will to do what is necessary to achieve a secure
southern border.

There's so much more and it's all in the "Pig Book" and on the Heritage
Website (heritage.org). If you care how your money is often misspent and you
want to keep the Democrats from following the Republicans, who followed the
Democrats in larding up appropriations bills, you will inform yourself and
act accordingly.

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